GURPS Martial Arts - Home

Recommendations

Info

Written by PETER DELL’ORTO and SEAN PUNCH Additional Material by VOLKER BACH and C.J. CARELLA Edited by SEAN PUNCH Cover Art by BOB STEVLIC Illustrated by ABRAR AJMAL and BOB STEVLIC ISBN 978-1-55634-762-7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 STEVE JACKSON GAMES
CONTENTS INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Publication History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 About the Authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 1. HISTORY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 TIMELINE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 ASIA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Xia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Monks and Martial Arts . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Northern vs. Southern Kung Fu . . . . . 10 Religion, Philosophy, and Fists . . . . . . 11 Indonesian Archipelago. . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Japan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Ryu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Ninja: Legend vs. History . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Korea. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Other Nations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 EUROPE AND THE MIDDLE EAST . . . . . . 15 Ancient Greece and Rome . . . . . . . . . 15 Gladiators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Medieval Europe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Yeomen Archers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Masters of Defence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Fechtbücher and Traveling Masters . . . 17 Renaissance Europe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Modern Europe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Beyond Western Europe . . . . . . . . . . . 18 AFRICA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 THE NEW WORLD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Brazil. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 United States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Women in the Martial Arts. . . . . . . . . . 20 SOME FAMOUS MARTIAL ARTISTS . . . . . 21 MYTHS AND MISCONCEPTIONS . . . . . . . 25 Boards Don’t Hit Back. . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Don’t Bring a Fist to a Knife Fight. . . 25 When Do I Learn Weapons? . . . . . . . . 26 Martial Arts and the Law . . . . . . . . . . 26 Bad Reenactments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 2. CHARACTERS . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Power Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 GURPS System Design ❚ STEVE JACKSON GURPS Line Editor ❚ SEAN PUNCH Indexer ❚ NIKOLA VRTIS Page Design ❚ PHIL REED and –––– JUSTIN DE WITT Realism Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Beginning Students as PCs. . . . . . . . . . 30 CHARACTER TEMPLATES . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Del Duque (350 points) . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Frauds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Adrian Froste (200 points) . . . . . . . . . . 37 Kai Lian (250 points) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 ADVANTAGES, DISADVANTAGES, AND SKILLS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Advantages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Desirable Advantages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Chi Powers for Martial Artists . . . . . . . 46 Perks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Disadvantages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Common Disadvantages. . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 Combat Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Wildcard Skills for Styles . . . . . . . . . . . 60 New Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 3. TECHNIQUES . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 Learning Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 REALISTIC TECHNIQUES . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 Techniques That Aren’t . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 Optional Rule: Targeted Attacks . . . . . . 68 “Go for the eyes!” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 Dirty Tricks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Using Your Legs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 Optional Rule: Combinations . . . . . . . 80 CINEMATIC TECHNIQUES . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 Secret Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 Silly Techniques. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 CREATING NEW TECHNIQUES . . . . . . . . 89 Designing Realistic Techniques . . . . . 93 Designing Cinematic Techniques . . . . 94 Useless Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 Designing Techniques for Nonhumans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 4. COMBAT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 EXPANDED COMBAT MANEUVERS . . . . . 97 Aim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 All-Out Attack. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 Attack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 Change Posture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 Managing Editor ❚ PHIL REED Production Manager ❚ MONICA STEPHENS Art Director ❚ WILL SCHOONOVER Production Artist ❚ ALEX FERNANDEZ Print Buyer ❚ MONICA STEPHENS Marketing Director ❚ PAUL CHAPMAN Sales Manager ❚ ROSS JEPSON Errata Coordinator ❚ ANDY VETROMILE GURPS FAQ Maintainer ❚ ––––––– STÉPHANE THÉRIAULT Research Assistance: Kim Bernard, Richard Johnson, Seth Milstein, and Brian Wasson Lead Playtester: Jeff Wilson Playtesters: Alex Borghgraef, Dave Brown, Jonathan Carryer, Giuseppe Chiapparino, Ken Clary, Doug Cole, Ciaran Daly, Andy Dokachev, Shawn Fisher, Scott Harris, Leonardo Holschuh, Dan Howard, Rob Kamm, Jonathan Lang, Jason Levine, Norman Lorenz, Phil Masters, Antoni Ten Monros, and Emily Smirle Special Thanks: Phil Dunlap, Jin Kazeta, Don Wagner, Old Sensei Don, Kromm’s Victims (Marc Bourbonnais, Martin Bourque, Bonnie Punch, Mike Ryan, Stéphane Thériault, Robert Thibault), and Peter’s Victims (Andy Dokachev, Jessica Dokachev, Mike Dokachev, Aaron Falken, John Milkewicz, Sean Nealy, and Tom Pluck) GURPS, Warehouse 23, and the all-seeing pyramid are registered trademarks of Steve Jackson Games Incorporated. Pyramid and the names of all products published by Steve Jackson Games Incorporated are registered trademarks or trademarks of Steve Jackson Games Incorporated, or used under license. GURPS Martial Arts is copyright © 1996, 1998, 2007 by Steve Jackson Games Incorporated. All rights reserved. Printed in Thailand. The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal, and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage the electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated. 2 CONTENTS Committed Attack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 Defensive Attack. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 Evaluate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 Feint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 Ready . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 Who Draws First?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 Move . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 Move and Attack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 Wait . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 ADDITIONAL COMBAT OPTIONS . . . . . . 109 Melee Attack Options . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 A Matter of Inches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 Untrained Fighters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 Close-Combat Options. . . . . . . . . . . . 114 Teeth. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 Grab and Smash! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 Ranged Attack Options . . . . . . . . . . . 119 Rapid Fire with Thrown Weapons. . . 120 Active Defense Options . . . . . . . . . . . 121 Harsh Realism for Unarmed Fighters . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 CINEMATIC COMBAT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 Multiple Attacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126 Chambara Fighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 Mind Games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 Extra Effort in Combat . . . . . . . . . . . 131 More Cinematic Combat Rules . . . . 132 TOURNAMENT COMBAT . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 Roleplaying Tournaments . . . . . . . . . 134 Competition Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 INJURY AND RECOVERY . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 Realistic Injury. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 Cinematic Injury . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 5. STYLES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 Cinematic Abilities and Prerequisites . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 COMPONENTS OF A STYLE . . . . . . . . . . 141 Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 Perks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 Optional Traits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 Style vs. Style. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 CHOOSING A STYLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144 Ultimate Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144 Self-Defense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 Styles for Cops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 Styles for Soldiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 Streetfighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 BUYING A STYLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146 Styles Bought During Character Creation . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Page 1: B Y P ETER D ELL’ORTO AND S EAN P
Page 5 and 6: INTRODUCTION Say “martial arts”
Page 7 and 8: The martial arts are as old as hist
Page 9 and 10: 1835 - New Jersey outlaws prizefigh
Page 11 and 12: Eventually, the links between secre
Page 13 and 14: INDONESIAN ARCHIPELAGO The Indonesi
Page 15 and 16: Okinawa Okinawa has always had stro
Page 17 and 18: Boxing in ancient Greece and Rome c
Page 19 and 20: RENAISSANCE EUROPE By the time of t
Page 21 and 22: THE NEW WORLD Asian and European ma
Page 23 and 24: Musashi was a precocious martial ar
Page 25 and 26: In China, Fairbairn came into conta
Page 27 and 28: Bad Reenactments A problem hardly u
Page 29 and 30: Jon Gilbey shouted, “No, Adrian.
Page 31 and 32: Beginning Students as PCs The guide
Page 33 and 34: Customization Notes Styles: Ninja s
Page 35 and 36: Lens Cinematic (+100 points): Add 8
Page 37 and 38: Monk 100 points You’ve isolated y
Page 39 and 40: Customization Notes Styles: Unarmed
Page 41 and 42: Background Skills: 6 points chosen
Page 43 and 44: ADVANTAGES, DISADVANTAGES, AND SKIL
Page 45 and 46: Most martial artists can only take
Page 47 and 48: Chi Powers for Martial Artists Mart
Page 49 and 50: Inigo: You’re using Bonetti’s d
Page 51 and 52: Chi Resistance*† You can rally yo
Page 53 and 54:
Suit Familiarity† You’ve learne
Page 55 and 56:
Minor Delusions affect combat again
Page 57 and 58:
Even so, stunt fighters are still f
Page 59 and 60:
Kiai* see p. B203 This skill has a
Page 61 and 62:
Tactics see p. B224 Tactics is a ma
Page 63 and 64:
Modifiers: A penalty equal to encum
Page 65 and 66:
Description: Some techniques raise
Page 67 and 68:
Martial artists practice dozens of
Page 69 and 70:
Your foe’s only legal defenses ar
Page 71 and 72:
Counterattack Hard Default: prerequ
Page 73 and 74:
Blinding your foe is an effective t
Page 75 and 76:
Head Butt Hard Defaults: Brawling-1
Page 77 and 78:
Combine Kicking with Committed Atta
Page 79 and 80:
Push Kick Hard Defaults: Brawling-3
Page 81 and 82:
Optional Rule: Combinations Martial
Page 83 and 84:
Wrench (Limb) Hard Default: ST-4; c
Page 85 and 86:
This technique is dangerous! If you
Page 87 and 88:
To execute a Piledriver, you must f
Page 89 and 90:
Humorous movies often feature silly
Page 91 and 92:
Prerequisites Unless the technique
Page 93 and 94:
A use of a defensive technique is a
Page 95 and 96:
• Own Defenses: A bonus to one’
Page 97 and 98:
The Italian used his dagger to ward
Page 99 and 100:
All-Out Attack (Long) is incompatib
Page 101 and 102:
• Determined: Make a single attac
Page 103 and 104:
Thus, a weapon that’s ready stays
Page 105 and 106:
Arrow: +1 if stuck in the ground at
Page 107 and 108:
Dealing with Charging Foes The sure
Page 109 and 110:
WAIT Wait requires you to name a pa
Page 111 and 112:
These rules address minute differen
Page 113 and 114:
When striking to the front or sides
Page 115 and 116:
CLOSE-COMBAT OPTIONS These expanded
Page 117 and 118:
Lame see p. B141 If you’re standi
Page 119 and 120:
Grapples can set up vicious strikes
Page 121 and 122:
The archer can precede this feat wi
Page 123 and 124:
The grappler has no penalties. Howe
Page 125 and 126:
Sideslip: If you’re standing, you
Page 127 and 128:
Faster Combat You can run extremely
Page 129 and 130:
Example 1: An attacker with two att
Page 131 and 132:
An important part of martial-arts m
Page 133 and 134:
MORE CINEMATIC COMBAT RULES The unr
Page 135 and 136:
TOURNAMENT COMBAT Not all combat is
Page 137 and 138:
INJURY AND RECOVERY Injury is an im
Page 139 and 140:
Severe Bleeding Realistic campaigns
Page 141 and 142:
Del Duque’s cape swirled dramatic
Page 143 and 144:
Wax on, right hand. Wax off, left h
Page 145 and 146:
CHOOSING A STYLE Every would-be stu
Page 147 and 148:
Some styles were born “stripped d
Page 149 and 150:
A PC who starts with several styles
Page 151 and 152:
ARMATURA 6 points Armatura was the
Page 153 and 154:
Perks: Iron Legs; Power Grappling;
Page 155 and 156:
Capoeira fighters claim that slaves
Page 157 and 158:
Escrimadors prefer the Defensive At
Page 159 and 160:
La Verdadera Destreza 4 points La V
Page 161 and 162:
Sport fencing largely eliminates mo
Page 163 and 164:
Practitioners of Hoplomachia often
Page 165 and 166:
Hwa Rang Do stylists prefer to open
Page 167 and 168:
JUDO 4 points Judo is a Japanese co
Page 169 and 170:
Brazilian Jiu-jitsu is a relatively
Page 171 and 172:
Te stresses deflecting an incoming
Page 173 and 174:
Belts and Grading In the popular im
Page 175 and 176:
Iaijutsu 5 points Iaijutsu is the J
Page 177 and 178:
Many cultures have styles that cons
Page 179 and 180:
KOBUJUTSU 8 points “Kobujutsu”
Page 181 and 182:
Kusarigamajutsu 3 points Warriors s
Page 183 and 184:
Skills: Brawling; Judo; Knife; Two-
Page 185 and 186:
The Purpose of Military Hand-to-Han
Page 187 and 188:
In matches, competitors wear modern
Page 189 and 190:
Skills: Judo; Karate; Meditation; P
Page 191 and 192:
Kumango Silat 4 points The heartlan
Page 193 and 194:
Staff Fighting Staff fighting is as
Page 195 and 196:
Skills: Karate; Wrestling. Techniqu
Page 197 and 198:
Sojutsu (pp. 197-198) is but one of
Page 199 and 200:
Sojutsu deals primarily with using
Page 201 and 202:
Tae Kwon Do Ranks Tae Kwon Do (see
Page 203 and 204:
Ninja and Ninjutsu The Japanese cha
Page 205 and 206:
Cinematic Techniques: Dual-Weapon A
Page 207 and 208:
Like other sport wrestling, Indian
Page 209 and 210:
Against multiple opponents, stylist
Page 211 and 212:
FREEFIGHTING 5 points Freefighting
Page 213 and 214:
Weapons don’t evolve in a vacuum.
Page 215 and 216:
Cane - Universal. The walking stick
Page 217 and 218:
The weapons in Martial Arts come in
Page 219 and 220:
Martial-arts tales (especially ninj
Page 221 and 222:
Unorthodox Attacks Often in fiction
Page 223 and 224:
POLLAXE (p. B272) - Europe. The Bas
Page 225 and 226:
A real weapon is preferable to an i
Page 227 and 228:
Yari - Japan. A Spear (pp. B273, B2
Page 229 and 230:
TL Weapon Damage Reach Parry Cost W
Page 231 and 232:
TL Weapon Damage Reach Parry Cost W
Page 233 and 234:
Notes: [1] A crossbow bolt costs $2
Page 235 and 236:
Armor Martial artists, especially p
Page 237 and 238:
CINEMATIC VS. REALISTIC CAMPAIGNS W
Page 239 and 240:
Special-Case NPCs Non-player charac
Page 241 and 242:
Amazing Abilities One option is to
Page 243 and 244:
An especially appropriate theme for
Page 245 and 246:
POST-CLASSICAL EUROPE The uninforme
Page 247 and 248:
MODERN DAY Modern-day games are amo
Page 249 and 250:
The Quest for the Master In a cinem
Page 251 and 252:
There are many variations on this t
Page 253 and 254:
BIBLIOGRAPHY Described below are wo
Page 255 and 256:
With rare exceptions, weapons are n
Page 257 and 258:
Power level guidelines, 29. Prana,
show all

GURPS Martial Arts - Home

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?